1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to address conversion and more specifically to conversion of address data contained in a packet when the packet travels between networks of different address formats.
2. Description of the Related Art
Address conversion is necessary for a gateway when routing a packet from a first network to a second network if the address formats of the networks are different from each other. For example, in an internet work environment, local private networks are connected to remote private networks via a global network. In such configurations, addresses of the private networks are organized independently of those assigned by the global network in order to facilitate address management of the private networks.
An address converter disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Specification 09-233112 uses a database that maps addresses of a first network to corresponding addresses of a second network. When the address converter receives a packer from the first network, it makes a search through the database for the corresponding address data of the second network that is mapped to the address data contained in the packet. However, if the amount of data contained in the database increases with an increasing number of users, the time taken to search through the database becomes substantial. Hence, there is a significant amount of latency in the transmission of packets across different networks.